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I Received an AI Email

timharek.no

121–130 of 597 posts

Re: I Received an AI Email

#121
post #57

I’m actually thrilled by this, as it means all the hack marketers that spam my inbox incessantly with whatever product they’re hucking - this time for sure perfect for my business, in spite of the fact I’ve ignored their last ten emails - are all out of a job, and good riddance. The author sounds unfamiliar with this brand of marketing email, so I can see why it would come off disquieting to find it’s all AI - but it…

> I’m actually thrilled by this, as it means all the hack marketers that spam my inbox incessantly with whatever product they’re hucking - this time for sure perfect for my business, in spite of the fact I’ve ignored their last ten emails - are all out of a job, and good riddance. > ... > At least with AI sending this crap nobody can use these emails to justify their sales bonus. What weird, misplaced animus. You're…

Some people don't realise how lucky they are that they are blessed by the cognitive lottery that affords them a brain and personality that lets them pursue an enriching and engaging career they feel is valued by society.

In classic HN style the original reply lacks empathy, and demonstrates a preference of machines over humans. Life goes on...

Re: I Received an AI Email

#122

This is going to become more common everywhere. If the dead internet theory isn't already true, it is going to be soon. Such "personalized" cold outreach is seen as the next holy grail by marketers and will be a common sight on LinkedIn, Twitter, Email etc, soon.

Recruiters on LinkedIn already used automation for outreach even before LLMs became popular.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#123

I've had a similar experience, but 4 years ago. GPT existed, but without the Chat prefix, and OpenAI was invite only. They reached out to me, asking whether my company would be interested in Something Somethingification. I decided that since I don't even understand the term, I'm not the right person, and decided to ignore it. Then they followed up. Meh. Then they followed up again, and I thought "okay, a little rewar…

[deleted]

Re: I Received an AI Email

#125

I’m actually thrilled by this, as it means all the hack marketers that spam my inbox incessantly with whatever product they’re hucking - this time for sure perfect for my business, in spite of the fact I’ve ignored their last ten emails - are all out of a job, and good riddance. The author sounds unfamiliar with this brand of marketing email, so I can see why it would come off disquieting to find it’s all AI - but it…

I look forward to the blog post of how a hacker uses AI to respond to AI generated leads and then have them play with each other....and then uses AI to create content for a Youtube channel fighting back against marketers using said AI. These early days is ripe to make some quick cash before it all comes crashing down.

> and then uses AI to create content for a Youtube channel fighting back against marketers using said AI.

I'm skeptical: It's easier to create bullshit than to analyze and refute it, and that should remain true even with an LLM in each respective pipeline.

----

P.S.: From the random free-association neuron, an adapted Harry Potter quote:

> Fudge continued, “Remove the moderation LLMs? I’d be kicked out of office! Half of us only feel safe in our beds at night because we know the AI are standing guard for misinformation on AzkabanTube!”

> “The rest of us sleep less soundly knowing you have put Lord Bullshittermort’s most dangerous channels in the care of systems that will serve him the instant he makes the correct prompts! They will not remain loyal to you when he can offer them much more scope for their training and outputs! With the LLMs and his old supporters behind him, you’ll find it hard to stop him!”

Re: I Received an AI Email

#126
post #114

If John Doe crafts a message himself and sends it to 100000 recipients, or if he uses ChatGPT to generate a message and then send it to 100000 recipients, what’s the difference? Both are unsolicited emails, i.e. spam. I feel confident that Gmail’s spam filter will be able to handle this quite well. I’m betting that the introduction of LLMs will not change the fundamentals of spam-fighting. https://paulgraham.com/spam…

Using a language model, one can craft an individually targeted email for each of those 100000 recipients. How do you "handle" this without doing anything current spam filters don't? Can you prevent an individual from sending 100000 emails a week? Can you make it cost them money?

Re: I Received an AI Email

#127
post #114

If John Doe crafts a message himself and sends it to 100000 recipients, or if he uses ChatGPT to generate a message and then send it to 100000 recipients, what’s the difference? Both are unsolicited emails, i.e. spam. I feel confident that Gmail’s spam filter will be able to handle this quite well. I’m betting that the introduction of LLMs will not change the fundamentals of spam-fighting. https://paulgraham.com/spam…

John Doe is probably very good a generating sales leads! By definition, most sales leads are generated from unsolicited communications -- email, phone, etc. I expect the very best sales people will be using a combination of ChatGPT and genuine personalisation for unsolicited communications.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#128
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the "dead internet theory"?

It was a joke from the 2010s that most of the people that you interacted with on the internet were actually bots, and that you were the only human using the web. Now, in the post-LLM age, it doesn't sound like a joke anymore.

Does it really matter if you’re being cold called by an AI or some sales person following the same few procedures they always do?

I’d prefer sales people keep their jobs. Having had the misfortune of being seated next to the telemarketing team in an investment bank for half a year… however… Let’s just say that I’m not sure you would even know if it was a person or a bot. They’re not even scripted or “trained” like your average telemarketer because our target audience is actually somewhat interested in what we sell, but listening to them repeat themselves over and over from their own “personal scripts”… well… they are already bots man.

Re: I Received an AI Email

#130
post #68
post #37

Really makes me appreciate that unsolicited emails are illegal in some European countries like Germany

I think that they’re as illegal as they are in the US, not more. I think it’s perfectly fine to “cold-call” people but then you’re not allowed to send more emails unless they subscribe or respond. In reality it’s very easy to end up subscribing to newsletters and even my European embassy subscribed me to their event newsletter in Thailand—of course I never agreed to any of that.

No it is not allowed to cold call or send any emails without express permission from the recipient this is for austria/germany.

It seems that with the gpdr this is now eu wide:

https://gdpr.eu/email-encryption/

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